For many years, pictures have been hung by utilizing conventional picture wire or wire cable composed of intertwisted individual strands of wire, which usually is sold in coils. Conventionally, such wire is employed on the backs of picture frames by passing the same through eyelets respectively connected to the rear surface of the opposite sides of a picture frame and then adjusting the length of the wire by trial and error for purposes of hanging the picture upon an appropriate hook or nail applied to a wall surface or the like. Usually adjustment is accomplished by more or less permanently twisting one end of the wire around itself with respect to one screw eye or eyelet, and then extending the other end through the opposite screw eye or eyelet and twisting that end of the wire around the intermediate portion of the wire. If the first attempt is not satisfactory, it is necessary to untwist one or the other ends of the wire and adjust the wire to a different length, retwist it, and try the same for position. This operation is time-consuming and frequently is frustrating. Further, especially in galleries or large displays of a number of pictures, it has been customary to hang said pictures from a molding adjacent the ceiling to which appropriate hooks are attached and the wires are formed with a loop at one end which is passed over the hook and then extended downward for connection to a nail or eyelet, screw eye or otherwise attached to the picture frame, two such wires or cables usually being required for each picture. Appropriate adjustment of the end of the wire attached to the picture frame also is necessary, usually by trial and error, and includes twisting and untwisting the lower end of the wire with respect to the attachment means on the picture frame until the desired level of the picture is achieved.
Adjustment of the length of tying cords or suspension lines of various types by readily adjustable means has been the subject of prior activity and various examples of the adjustability of various lengths of flexible cords and the like comprise the subject matter of the following U.S. Patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 65,499: Miller June 4, 1867 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 477,522: Drayton June 21, 1892 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 496,696: Nash May 2, 1893 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,042,808: Seebeck June 2, 1936 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,144,963: Darlington Jan. 24, 1939
None of the foregoing patents suggest the application of quickly operable adjustable means for the length of so-called picture wire or cable. However, there have been attempts in other directions to provide means by which pictures or wall-display devices might be supported by adjustable means and examples of at least several types of such means comprise the subject matter of prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,853,226 to Hine, dated Dec. 10, 1974 and 3,945,599 to Spier et al, dated Mar. 23, 1976.
Neither of the foregoing patents employ picture wire or cable and the established use of such material for hanging pictures or the like on wall surfaces or otherwise still remains very popular and it is the purpose of the present invention to provide simple and appropriate adjustable means for desired lengths of picture wire or cable and the basic principles of the present invention applied to such wire or cable are not found in the prior art, details of the same being as follows: